BIAY - Faithful Inquiry
Joshua 7-9, Psalm 54
Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Intro to this series and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.
Scriptures for Today:
Reflection:
Today we plunge headlong into some challenging texts in which the question of divinely-sanctioned violence in the Old Testament in unavoidable. I’d like to share a resource this week that can give us more to think about and consider as we wrestle with this important issue. I’m not assuming this will settle every question or qualm, but I do hope it will help provide some context and considerations to orient your own thinking.
Seedbed.com produced a three-part series from Dr. Lawson Stone of Asbury Seminary several years ago. I’ll share part one today, part two tomorrow, and part three in a couple of weeks when we come to the book of Judges, as it addresses that book in particular.
One’s actions impact all (7:10-12) - Because we’re considering the treatment of violence in the OT writings separately with a video resource, I’m going to observe the narrative purpose of the story. In this case, the actions of one (Achan) impacts the whole group. Unfaithfulness to God’s covenant (in this case coveting that leads to disobedience, verses 20-21) may not impact only the one who breaks covenant, but the whole community as well.
Participation in the works of God (8:18-19) - The people now go on the attack again having dealt with the unfaithfulness of Achan. A theme I see throughout this chapter is that God and the people are co-working in fighting the battle. God is giving them victory in this battle and they are rising up and fighting. God is giving the enemy into Joshua’s hand and Joshua’s best fighting men have been deployed strategically. There isn’t a conflict in the narrative between the work of God and the participation of humans.
“But they did not inquire of the Lord” (9:14-15) - You have to hand it to the Gibeonites. They see what’s happening and craft a plan to deceive Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them—and it works! The people of God are capable of naïveté at times. What was the key to the deception? “They did not inquire of the Lord.” This seems like a good time for a piece of wisdom not yet recorded in the Bible but accessible to us. Whatever we are needing to discern, in the words of the old hymn, “take it to the Lord in prayer.”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Questions:
When have you seen the actions of one have a positive or negative impact on the whole group?
When did you wish you had “inquired of the Lord” when you made a decision or commitment without first having done so?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, you are my help and my sustainer. Watch over my coming and going, my rising up and lying down, that I may follow you faithfully each day. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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